Outsourcing health-care services to the private sector and treatable mortality rates in England, 2013–20: an observational study of NHS privatisation

Ben Goodair, Doctoral Researcher, Department of Social Policy and Intervention at the University of Oxford

Monday, 05 December 2022, 1pm to 2pm

Hosted by The Health Economics Research Centre (HERC) herc@ndph.ox.ac.uk

Date and Time: Monday 05 December 2022 01:00 pm (UK GMT)

To Join: This is a free event, which will be taking place both in-person and online via Zoom/Microsoft Teams. To register your interest in attending this talk please click HERE

Abstract:

The seminar will present results from a study assessing the associations between healthcare outsourcing to for-profit providers and treatable mortality rates in England. Debates about the impact of outsourcing healthcare services on quality of care have been high-profile in the public discourse. However, evidence on the impacts of outsourcing has been difficult to produce because comparing health outcomes for patients in different providers does not compare like-for-like while aggregate data on outsourcing has previously been difficult to harmonise. The research resolves this by utilising a novel data resource which has harmonised over 12,000 individual data files with commissioner expenditures totalling over £200bn in NHS spend. We observe a consistent increase in outsourcing to for-profit companies between 2013 and 2020 and find that increases in outsourcing are associated with increases in treatable mortality rates in the following year. From these results we suggest that outsourcing of services corresponds with declining quality of healthcare.

Bio:

Ben Goodair is a doctoral researcher at the Department of Social Policy and Intervention at the University of Oxford. His research focuses on the impact of marketisation on the quality of health and social care services. Ben's doctoral thesis assesses the causes and consequences of the privatisation of England's NHS between 2013-2020 and his broader research interests include health systems, health inequalities and mixed-methods research. Previously, Ben was a Research Assistant at the Bennett Institute for Public Policy, Cambridge University, where he led on the Institute's 'Townscapes Project'. Ben holds an MSc in Social Policy (Research) from the London School of Economics and a BA in Politics and Modern History from the University of Manchester.

Forthcoming External Talks

The Health Economic and Policy Seminar Series

Wednesday, 03 April 2024 to Friday, 27 September 2024, 4pm - 5pm

Meta-analysis of utility values, including using the Bayesian Power Prior

Director, Anthony Hatswell, Delta Hat

Tuesday, 30 April 2024, 2pm to 3pm

OxTalks (Oxford Population Health)